Objective: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common parenchymal lung disease. Patients with IPF sometimes develop acute exacerbation (AE), which predicts a poor prognosis. To evaluate the predictors of 90-day mortality of AE in patients with IPF based on the new 2016 criteria. Materials and Methods: Sixty-five patients with AE were studied retrospectively between January 2001 and December 2016 at Okinawa Chubu Hospital. Results: The mean age of the patients was 74 years, with 40 (61...

The Chocolate BAR study is a prospective multicenter post-market registry designed to evaluate the safety and performance of the Chocolate percutaneous transluminal angioplasty balloon catheter in a broad population with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease. The primary endpoint is acute procedural success (defined as ≤30% residual stenosis without flow-limiting dissection); secondary long-term outcomes include freedom from target lesion revascularization (TLR), major unplanned amputation, survival, and patency...

PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate long-term mortality, recurrence, and death related to recurrence for patients admitted with acute diverticulitis with abscess formation (Hinchey stage Ib-II). METHODS: The cohort was identified by linking administrative registers for all Danish citizens in years 2000-2012. Patients were identified from ICD-10 discharge codes and stratified according to treatment (antibiotics, percutaneous abscess drainage, or surgery). RESULTS: From 6,641,672 persons, 3148 patients were identified with acute diverticulitis with abscess formation...

Background: Bacterial meningitis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world. However, limited research has focused on the diagnosis and management of meningitis in resource-limited settings. Methods: We designed a prospective case series of children admitted to a large, academic referral hospital with acute meningitis syndrome. Data were collected on age, time of presentation, prior antibiotics, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters, antibiotic and steroid prescription, and clinical outcome...

OBJECTIVES: However, the information regarding the impact of sarcopenia on mortality in older individuals is rising, there is a lack of knowledge concerning this issue among geriatric hospitalized patients. Therefore, aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between sarcopenia and 1-year mortality in a prospectively recruited sample of geriatric inpatients with different mobility and dependency status. DESIGN AND SETTING: Sarcopenia was diagnosed using the criteria of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP)...

OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes between percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stent placement in the treatment of TRAS. METHODS: We retrospectively studied patients who underwent angiography for TRAS between 1/1/2008 and 9/20/2016 at one center. We compared the rates of restenosis in patients who were treated with angioplasty alone versus those who were treated with stenting. Secondary outcomes included serum creatinine and blood pressure after intervention and graft and patient survival...

Introduction To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ureteroscopic thulium laser treatment of upper urinary tract carcinoma (UTUC). Material and Methods Forty-two consecutive patients underwent conservative thulium laser treatment for UTUC at two referral institutions. All patients underwent preliminary biopsy and then laser vaporization. A 272 μm and a 365 μm laser fibers were used with a flexible and semirigid scope, respectively. Ablation was carried out with a 10-20 Watt power. Results Mean age at surgery was 68 years old (SD 10...

Socioeconomic deprivation is associated with poorer outcomes in chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of socioeconomic deprivation on outcomes following pancreas transplantation among patients transplanted in England. We included all 1270 pancreas recipients transplanted between 2004 and 2012. We used the English Index of Multiple Deprivation (EIMD) score to assess the influence of socioeconomic deprivation on patient and pancreas graft survival. Higher scores mean higher deprivation status...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the role of primary care healthcare delivery on survival for American Indian patients with diabetes in the southwest United States. METHODS: Data from patients with diabetes admitted to Gallup Indian Medical Center between 2009 and 2016 were analyzed using a log-rank test and Cox Proportional Hazards analyses. RESULTS: Of the 2661 patients included in analysis, 286 patients died during the study period. Having visited a primary care provider in the year prior to first admission of the study period was protective against all-cause mortality in unadjusted analysis (HR (95% CI)=0...

INTRODUCTION: Although the trend towards penile sparing therapy is increasing for penile squamous cell carcinoma, outcomes for laser ablation therapy have not been widely reported. We assessed the clinical outcomes of penile cancer patients treated with only laser ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review was performed on 161 patients across 5 multi-center tertiary referral centers from 1985 to 2015. All patients underwent penile sparing surgery with only laser ablation for squamous cell carcinoma of the penis...

CONTEXT: Limited data is available regarding the association between pre-admission thyroid function and prognosis of hospitalized patients treated for hypothyroidism. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate an association between thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and mortality in hospitalized levothyroxine-treated patients. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational data of patients admitted to medical wards between 2011 and 2013. TSH levels obtained up to 180 days prior to admission were stratified as follows: low (≤0...

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are associated with better clinical outcomes in many tumors. TILs represent a cell-mediated immune response against the carcinoma. CD8+ TILs are a crucial component of cell-mediated immunity. The significance of CD8+ TILs has not been reported respectively in organ- and non-organ-confined urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder. We explored the prognostic value of CD8+ TILs in the two groups. The presence of CD8+ TILs was assessed by immunohistochemical staining of whole tissue sections from 75 organ and 51 non-organ-confined disease patients with long-term follow-up, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) was determined...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Carcinoma in situ (CIS) in urothelial carcinoma generally has poor prognosis, but the outcomes of pure/primary CIS tumor (p-CIS) and the behavior of concomitant CIS (c-CIS) with pTa-pT4 upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) managed by nephroureterectomy has not been specified. The aim of our study was to explore the biological and prognostic features of c-CIS, compared with p-CIS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We queried multicenter UTUC database...